Ministry of Science: Polish scientists getting better in reaching for the EU money
Source: Fotolia
Polish scientists more often and more effectively participate in Horizon 2020 competitions. In the first competitions, the success rate for Poland is 2 percent higher than the EU average, the Ministry of Science reports.
Horizon 2020 is the EU framework program for research and innovation. Its seven-year budget for 2014-2020 will amount to nearly 80 billion euros. The European Commission has summarized the results of its first 37 competitions.
"The success rate for Poland (the ratio of the number of funded proposals to the number of submitted proposals - ed. PAP) is 15.8 percent, 2 percent higher than the European Union average. In 800 projects that have been targeted for funding, Polish scientists are involved in 127 projects" - the Ministry of Science and Higher Education informed PAP. In 11 projects funded under Horizon 2020, Polish researchers are coordinators.
"I am delighted by this news. Before, we had very low participation and success rate in competitions. This is the best way for the internationalisation of Polish science, as well as raising new funds and participation in new initiatives. This means that we not only participate in competitions, we manage to win them. We are beginning to develop the skills to acquire grants. This participation is a great prognosis for the next five years " - told PAP Minister of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska.
She noted that equally popular was the Teaming programme implemented under Horizon 2020. In this programme, the best Polish scientific institutions have an opportunity for strategic partnerships with leading research centres in Europe. "These are large international projects connecting the best foreign centres with Polish institutes. The ministry has given support to 11 such projects. Here, too, you can see this large desire and willingness to participate in the EU competitions" - said Kolarska-Bobińska.
She pointed out that the broad participation of Polish researchers in the first competitions under Horizon 2020 means that the "Pact for Horizon 2020" is a success. The document, designed to mobilize Polish researchers to be more effective in obtaining funds from the European Union, was prepared by the Ministry of Science in May 2014 and signed by more than 340 Polish scientific institutions. "It is clear that universities, research units and departments have not considered it a formality or courtesy, but really take action to obtain funds from the EU" - assessed Minister of Science in an interview with PAP.
She reminded that a series of regional conferences begins in Poland, whose purpose is to inform about the rules of participation in Horizon 2020 competitions. "Our goal is to increase the participation of scientists from smaller centres, who have not participated in the competitions so far" - emphasized Kolarska-Bobińska.
Horizon 2020 replaced by the 7th Framework Programme for Research, whose budget for 2007-2013 amounted to 53 billion euros, and in which the results of Polish scientists were very poor. Given the number of projects completed within 7FP and the amount of funding obtained, we were in the 13th-14th place in the European Union. Poland has 64 thousand scientists, and only 2 percent of them were involved in FP7 projects.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Ewelina Krajczyńska
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